1962 Chevy Bel-Air - Rust Bubble

After building a few cars, I needed a break and decided to take a different route and buy a couple already done. Then I came to realize I never liked any of the cars I bought because I didn't build them. All I wanted to do was take them apart and start over. So I decided to build a new car that I could enjoy. I contacted a person I knew who owned a few Chevy bubbletops and asked him to let me know if he ever came across a '62 Bel Air bubbletop because I wanted to build one.

A few months later he contacted me to tell me a friend of his had put one on eBay and that he had put a bid in on it but didn't really need another car. So I got in touch with the seller, who told me that the car was ready for paint. So I contacted the person I knew to find out some more info. He told me he was good friends with the seller, who did fine work and was respected among the 409 crowd. He also told me he knew the car and it was everything the seller said it was.

I respected his opinion because he owned some really nice cars, so I took the plunge and bought it sight unseen. When I got the car home it looked really good and I figured I did OK. After it sat for a few months I decided I was ready to get started on the project. It started well and after getting a few things done the project was going smooth. Then it went all downhill.

I found some body filler under the roof skin inside the car that looked out of place. After poking a screwdriver through the roof I knew there were problems. One thing led to another and I found out the truth about the car. I had made a bad deal. They spent more time hiding stuff that was wrong than if they had fixed it right. A good friend of mine once told me if you make a bad deal make up for it in hard work, and that is what I did.

2/9

I had the car stripped and could finally see what I had purchased, and it wasn't much. If I had looked at the car before buying it, I still would have, they did that good of a job hiding what was there. I started to round up sheetmetal and found a good roof skin, doors, fenders, and decklid, and ordered a pair of quarters and rockers. I also went back through and fixed the floorpans and replaced the inner wheelhouses.

The body needed a great deal of metalwork to save it. Once the body was solid again it was time to smooth the firewall, remove door handles and emblems, and do a lot more fabrication. One of the hardest parts of the build was trying to make the car sit right with the 20- and 22-inch wheels. The frame needed to be C-notched, the body mounts and shocks were relocated, floor work was done, and the front inner fenders were raised.

As work continued, I contacted my friend and car designer, Jason Rushforth, to go over some ideas. We went through many different designs but finally came up with one that would work.

After getting the engine, transmission, and suspension mocked up it was finally time to tear down and get some paint on the car. Since I work for an automotive paint store (Wesco Autobody Supply), I have a lot of great products at my fingertips. The other nice part of working for a jobber store is that I know a lot of body shops. My friend, Mike McKinney, who owns Riverside Collision, let me have run of the place to get the car painted.

Once the car had some shine it was time to do final assembly and to get Todd Kramer to sew up the interior. Assembling a car that I'd never taken apart was one of the hardest parts of the process. There was a lot of trial and error. I set a goal to have the car finished to take to the Del Mar Goodguys show and it was coming fast. The last two months before the show involved a lot of days and nights to get the car finished. There were plenty of times I didn't think it was going to make it, but it did. I had a lot of friends there to help me at the end, but my friend Wade Bonds put in a lot of hours at my shop helping on the build and cleaning up after me.

ChassisThe stock X-frame was retained but modified to get the Chevy as low as possible. The rear was C-notched, the shock mounts were relocated, and the center X-member was raised to clear the driveline. Air Ride Technologies tubular upper and lower A-arms and Shockwaves were used up front along with Baer 13-inch discs and a CPP power steering box. The rear suspension is made up of Air Ride Technologies tubular control arms and bags securing the stock Chevy rearend housing which is now equipped with Moser axles and 12-inch Baer discs.

DrivetrainChris intends to drive the bubbletop and wanted late-model reliability so he found an '02 LS1 backed by a six-speed trans and left it mostly stock with the exception of a Weiand intake, a Street & Performance air cleaner, and March Performance pulleys. Chris fabbed some custom coil covers to clean it up. Sanderson headers and Flowmaster mufflers handle the exhaust duties.

Wheels & TiresChris had a plan for the wheels and tires right from the start; he wanted to go big. Fitting the Intro Phantom 5 hoops took a little finesse but the 22x10.5 rears and 20x8.5 fronts fill the wheelwells while still getting the body down deep in the weeds. Pirelli P-Zero rubber (245/30ZR20 and 285/30ZR22) keeps the billet from scraping the ground.

Body & PaintMost of the time was spent just getting the body solid again, but the door handles and emblems were removed for a custom touch. The body was then covered in PPG Willow Green over Charcoal Pearl by the owner.

InteriorThe original dash was retained but fitted with a custom insert with gauges from Classic Instruments. An ididit tilt column with a Billet Specialties GTX01 wheel was added along with '97 Camaro buckets. The seats, custom door panels, and fiberglass console were covered in two-tone leather by Todd Kramer. Vintage Air A/C and a Sony sound system were installed to keep Chris and his passengers comfortable and entertained.